‘Archer’ Season 8 Moves Show To FXX With New Trailer And Subtitle
Archer Season 8 has a new home on FXX. The FX animated comedy is joining its fellow comedic brethren on the cable network’s spin-off channel starting this year, according to Deadline.
FX is already airing a promo to highlight Archer‘s move to FXX. The 15-second teaser also provides the subtitle “Dreamland.” Dreamland is a nickname commonly associated with the mysterious U.S. Air Force-owned section of land in Nevada known as Area 51. Given the outfits Archer’s team is wearing in the promo, and the fact that Area 51 began its secretive testing operations shortly after the Second World War, it’s entirely possible that this season of Archer will have something to do with the origin or operation of the base.
There is also an intriguing glimpse at Sterling Archer, dressed in soldier fatigues, punching a soldier in some war-torn location, further lending credibility to the idea that this season will take place sometime in the ’40s or ’50s. (The voice-over also promises a “new era” for this season.) A second promo teaser for Archer Season 8 invokes the word “noir,” implying a deliberate attempt to pay homage to the film noirs of the ’40s and ’50s. Since noirs tend to be detective stories with larger sinister forces at work, Area 51 is an excellent choice of setting for the season.
This isn’t the first time the show has provided a descriptive subtitle for a season. When Archer and crew discovered their spy organization was never officially sanctioned by the U.S. in the Season 4 finale, they transitioned into becoming drug smugglers. As a result, Season 5 was also known as Archer Vice, in reference to the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
The move has been in the works for a while; Deadline reported that the show was originally set to move to FXX when Season 7 aired. That was when FX also had Cassius and Clay. Cassius and Clay was another animated series described by the network as “Archer meets Thelma and Louise” that was canceled due to discord among the creative team, as John Landgraf told Vox at the Television Critics Association winter press tour last year.
Without a good animated partner, Archer Season 7 was left to air on FX as usual. The season’s original renewal notice (via TVLine) indicated the show would receive 13 episodes, but that order was later cut to 10.
Deadline reported last summer that Archer has been renewed for three more seasons, which is exactly the amount creator Adam Reed thinks he’ll need to finish up the show. Reed was talking to the Murmur podcast when he revealed these ambitious plans; he also rambled a bit about how these upcoming seasons would differ from each other and from the other seasons of the show.
Go ahead and ogle these tantalizing photos from The Art of Archer. We’re not judging. #ArcherFXhttps://t.co/qMevtSMr5c
— Archer (@ArcherFX) December 2, 2016
That’s not surprising. Since Season 5’s acclaimed Archer Vice run, the show has continued to morph into different genres and execute changes without hesitation. When Archer and his team returned to the U.S. government under the auspices of the CIA, the show also abandoned the spy agency’s name “ISIS” due to the unfortunate connotations of sharing a name with the real-life extremist group currently operating out of the Middle East.
Last season, Archer dove deep into Magnum P.I. territory, as the gang formed a private detective agency in Los Angeles. The season was full of references to classic L.A.-set films like Sunset Boulevard as well as a trailer which deliberately invoked the opening credits of the classic detective series.
Archer Season 8 has no solid premiere date yet, but as the vague Spring 2017 premiere window inches nearer, FX will likely release more details and trailers soon.
[Featured Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]
